First Indoor Grow, Advice Welcomed.

[tristan1986]

Hey all,
basically i have just started my first indoor grow and i thought i would share my up's and downs with the entire community :D

The Setup
The system is a basic ring drip system which for the start has had the rings removed as they were too wide to get any water (or nutes) to my little girls.
The light being used is a 600w Growlush HPS and i chose the biggest reflector i could get my hands on. Plants are growing in hydroton medium.

Nutes
For the first part i am using a 50% strength solution of OPTIMA 'grow' nutrient to start the little ones off and when i believe they can handle it i will go full strength and add some Super Thrive.

For the lighting schedule i am using 18/6 and the pump for the airstones in the reservoir and for the circulation system are constantly running to make sure the nutes are distributed and there is constant circulation with the water to avoid it going stagnant.

The two different strains are completely a mystery although i believe the three larger plants may be bag seed clones and the third is from an imported strain. It came from a mates mate so you never really know.. eh

I got my hands on them about 2 days ago and these pics were taken moments ago, i am yet to change tables and also apply my reflective material tomorrow. I think the table change will wait till next grow.

Thanks For Stopping In! :rastasmoke:

[tristan1986]

http://boards.cannabis.com/members/tristan1986-albums-first-grow-picture1687-light-reflector.jpg

http://boards.cannabis.com/members/tristan1986-albums-first-grow-picture1686-special-strain-no-idea-its-name-smaller-than-others.jpg

http://boards.cannabis.com/members/tristan1986-albums-first-grow-picture1685-irrigation-system.jpg

http://boards.cannabis.com/members/tristan1986-albums-first-grow-picture1684-3.jpg

http://boards.cannabis.com/members/tristan1986-albums-first-grow-picture1683-2.jpg

http://boards.cannabis.com/members/tristan1986-albums-first-grow-picture1682-1.jpg

Having issues with uploading but here we go! :dance:

[headshake]

are those things flowering already?

-shake

[Divestoned]

are those things flowering already?

-shake

HEHE yea they are. look's good so far.

[tristan1986]

Yeah it certainly looks like he took the clones a bit too late.
Apparently there were basically no hairs on it before the cutting was taken although whilst in a small cloning box with lights the hairs have grown dramatically lol

[tristan1986]

Quick note,
The 4th smaller plant is Mazar or Mazzar. Not sure how to spell it. :)

[filo6942]

I wonder what the veterans here would think about changing your light schedual to 24/0 to help put those guys back into VEG.

[Divestoned]

Me? I would say 18-6 is fine becouse plant's concentrate on root growth during the night cycle.

Dive:stoned:

[headshake]

Me? I would say 18-6 is fine becouse plant's concentrate on root growth during the night cycle.

Dive:stoned:

i'm not disagreeing with you dive, that's how i veg my ladies. i did however read in a this book i have on the subject that plants under 24/0 grow 25% faster.

i don't know how true this is, but it would be interesting to run an experiment on this!


-shake

[Divestoned]

I have of course tried it ...and saw no vast improvement.I'm not saying it's wrong...just that it never showed improved growth for me.
I also have seen that the night cycle is great for root growth...meaning,you should give them a dark cycle.


Dive:stoned:

[tristan1986]

Update
Have had a few issues lately with evaporation leaving the nutrient solution too strong for the plants and causing some nute burn. Also with the water coming out with a PH of 8.9 and me only just being able to test it has its own problems aswell ;)

Well so a few more picces for everyone to see. Probably not much different except for one but im still proud lol :clap:

Is it true that nothing seems to be happening due to the plant settling in and growing a root system?

[tristan1986]

Just a little update for ya'll :thumbsup:
Funnily enough the PH tester i was using (my mates) was actually not reading correctly anymore.. That caused a few issues :mad:

Between the PH being around 7.8 and a small insect issues things are going swimmingly.. lol But hey this was a learning process for me and i've been learning :)

Ohh and p.s the little fella is actually a 'Celtic Hash' seedling. Should be good to keep as a mother

[syde00]

wow yeah that PH is pretty high, i;ve never done hydro, but from what i understand 5.5-5.8 ph is around where you want it...

as for the insect problem, try picking up some concentrated neem oil and follow the directions on the package.

if you have pests already, you'll want to ignore their instructions for how often to apply it - you'll want to do it about every 3 days for 2-3 weeks.

if the problem isn;t really serious at all yet, you can follow the directions which generally is about once every 1-2 weeks.

as for your question about the plants seeming to be doing nothing - yep you are dead on, they are basically focusing on forming a new root system, as the roots flush out you'll start seeing more and more above-ground growth.

good luck!

[headshake]

what light schedule are your ladies running on?


-shake

[tristan1986]

heya shake ;)

Atm there running 18/6. But i did make the newbie mistake when changing my hours around that i accidentally had it running 14/10 so it would have been really confusing my plants lol..

I purchased myself a PH tester and Superthrive yesterday. Hopefully due to being able to be on top of the PH, growth should improve dramatically.. Been make quite a few newbie mistakes but hey thats part of the parcel i guess :)

Twice when testing the PH the numbers were near the 8.0 mark and thus the plants would have been in lock out right?

[tristan1986]

Update :thumbsup:
There pretty lanky in my opinion, i think that they all seem to be outdoor strains.. Argh

Cant wait to get rid of these ones and start my Celtic Hash grow going ;)

When do u guys usually decide to flower your plants, using height or by the bushiness of the plants / age..?

[Italiano715]

Update :thumbsup:
There pretty lanky in my opinion, i think that they all seem to be outdoor strains.. Argh

Cant wait to get rid of these ones and start my Celtic Hash grow going ;)

When do u guys usually decide to flower your plants, using height or by the bushiness of the plants / age..?

I would have to say age/height....As you don't want to start them to early to where it isn't fully mature to start sexing them, but at the same time you don't want them to get too big for your grow space as they will double to triple in size when thrown into 12/12 (flowering phase). Basically it is all on you. :thumbsup:

[tristan1986]

well its been a LONG long time lol, basically my camera ran out of batteries and i had it on my to do list which never got completed lol

Well i left it a little too late as i wasn't very aware of exactly how crazy they stretch when changed to 12/12 although it looks like i started basically at the latest possible as they are practically right at the lights.

Had a little bit of light burn due to this but by moving the pots around and such i've got them a little further along..

Well i've got some batteries now (plus a dehumidifier :thumbsup:) so here are some pics to enjoy.

p.s i've changed to the canna range when i changed to flower as a friend of mine raves on about the PH stability which was pissing me off with the Optimal range fluctuating constantly lol

Enjoy

[Italiano715]

Looking good! :thumbsup: Those girls are massive!

[tristan1986]

they are huge aren't they!
Only problem is that the light isn't evenly distributed due to the buds being so close and the light literally being the closest to the roof as possible..

One other thing guys is i lost track of the dates when turned to 12/12 and im going to use Canna's PK 13-14. Due to not know when the 5th week is i don't know when to use it.. :(

Any way to kind of estimate by looking at the buds? lol Probably not though..
Thanks for looking! :thumbsup:

[tristan1986]

missed one

[tristan1986]

During the last week they have really thickened up! :thumbsup:
Few more pics

[tristan1986]

and more.. :)

[Divestoned]

very nice! :thumbsup:

Dive:stoned:

[tristan1986]

thanks for the encouragement! :thumbsup:

[tristan1986]

Had to chop a little early :(
Here are some pictures of the final process

Some of my favorite buds, the plants after the chop and a picture showing the roots that were going through the piping :)

[tristan1986]

Dry weight 409gms!!
Little over 14.5oz :)

Pretty happy with the results, what do you guys reakon?

[sarah louise]

Well congrats for getting to harvest, that ought to keep you out of trouble for a little while. Enjoy :)

[tristan1986]

Thanks heaps sarah :)
Your advice was appreciated for my outdoor grow. Glad your back :thumbsup: